191 chapter 19Xia and Long travelled through a day and night and passed by many tragic towns and villages. They were only able to save one or two lives, but even so they took the time to heal the wounded and bury the dead. Three days later, the ghoul also caught up with them.
“How’s the situation in Juikal?” Xia shouted to the ghoul who was running on par with their horse.
The ghoul frowned deeply. “It’s somewhat good and bad news. The cultivators and the dragon hunters have joined hands and moving towards the west as we speak. With their help it might be easy to deal with the horded of Rakshasas but...” He glanced at Long hesitantly, “your highness, it’s bad if we get discovered. There are almost thousands of human cultivators each reaching the sky realm, almost on the verge of breakthrough to heaven’s realm. If they find out your identity as the heavenly dragon, all might join forces to deal with you,” He said with a grave look.
Long took a deep breath and nudged the horse to slow down. “We don’t have much time to think about that...did you get any news about the heavenly envoys? Why haven’t they moved yet?”
The ghoul scratched his head and shook his head. “I—I haven’t contacted anyone from the heaven realm for over ten thousand years, your highness.....”
Long mentally slapped himself. Whenever the ghoul addressed him as ‘your highness,’ he thought of him as one of his subordinate from heaven realm. “ummm.... yeah.....eight thousand years ago the human realm and heaven realm signed a treaty that the heaven realm will help them deal with the Rakshasas in case one day they wreak havoc. So most likely the heavenly envoys might be on the way,”
“We have to hurry. If they are delayed, we have to hold the fight for them....,” he leaned over and fed a small spiritual pill to the horse and cursed his head. With a pull of its rains, the horse neighed and tottered slowly, eventually gained speed.
The ghoul easily matched the speed of the horse and rushed after them. After two days they finally reached the shores of ‘Hales’. A small seashore country which was rich in export of other goods. from the shore, the goods get shipped to the main islands of Ameterus.
But the country was the least peaceful. Because it is the only Kingdom that connects the other main islands to the shore, there were always conflicts and wars nearby. Later on, a few years passed and the prince finally stabilised the savage islands of Ameterus by promising free trade.
.....
Xia deeply thought about the history he had read in the multitudes of books in his library. “Long, stop here. This place is always been turbulent. It’s better to be careful. Let’s disguise ourselves,” He carefully jumped off the horse and beckoned Long close.
Long Aotian tied the horse to one of the protruding rock and walked over. “We have already hid our faces though,”
“Yeah, but that will not be enough. We will be fighting demons and such, this small scarf will not protect our identity,” Xia said. He pulled out a few tattered clothes from his ring. The clothes were brown and dirt enough and ridden with holes everywhere.
“Why do you have such torn clothes,” Long mumble holding it carefully in fear it would tear.
“When I was young, I used to sneak into the village near Nevada dressed as a beggar to avoid any suspicious. It was my guilty pleasure....” Xia added with a red face. He too wore a worn-out a pair of shirt and pant set. The shirt sleeves were short and the pant legs were torn near the knees. After dressing up, he helped Long wear his dirty black shirt as well, But Long kept whining and moaning as he pulled his dirty pants on.
“stop whining, little Long it’s to protect our identity,”
Xia picking up a fistful of black clay. “Now we have to hide our face.... So let’s smear our face with this.”
Knowing his intentions, Long grimaced and shook his head. “No....that smells so bad...I’m not putting that anywhere on my body,” he said stepped back.
With a naughty smirk, Xia jumped over to him and caressed his cheek with his clay stained hands. “hahaha, now that your cheeks are hidden! Why don’t we hide you beautiful straight nose,” he applied the paste on his nose, “now forehead,” chuckling, he continued applying it on his smooth forehead, “lips?”
“NO!” Long exclaimed and leaned away from his naughty hands. “It is already stinky as heck. Please don’t ruin my lisp as well,” he cried pitifully.
Xia pouted and stepped back. He liberally applied it all over his face and hands, making his snow white skin look like a black charcoal. “I heard that sea side mud is good for your skin,” he whispered, patting his wet cheeks softly.
Long grimaced even more. “Who would use this stinky thing on their skin? Oh lord.” he pinched his nose tightly, yet still he was not able to get rid of the stink. “Xia~ I’m suffering,” he cried and hugged his lover. All of a sudden he stepped back and whined even more. “You stink as well....”
Xia smacked his shoulders and stomped over to the horse. “Get on you stupid dragon!” but Long hesitantly stood a foot away. “You...you are sleeping alone for the next five days. AND NO TOUCHING!” Xia angrily shouted and jumped on the horse himself.
Watching all this from the side, the ghoul rolled his eyes again. He really could not handle their sweet and sour romantic moments like this. He caressed his aching jaw proudly and whispered, “no one knows me, so I don’t need to disguise myself. I might even look more handsome than highness, hehe,”
“You have to as well,” a small clay ball flew directly over to him and smacked him right on his forehead. His entire face and mouth got filled with mud and dirt. The ghoul woodenly wiped the mud off and glanced at Long. “Your highness! Why did you throw that?”
“Why do you have to be clean? Look at me. Even I’m dressed as a beggar.”
Xia on the other hand slowly trotted over to the ghoul and helped wiped the clay off of his face. “It’s okay, let him look as he is. His face is already moulded with special clay we can change his features anytime we want to,”
The ghoul nodded swiftly and washed his face in near the shore.
Long kept glancing at him with a pout. “Why does he get to be clean? I want to be clean too. Xia~~ this is so unfair. I want a clean shirt at least,” He said, pinching his nose tightly.
Without a word, Xia smacked his forehead and dragged him towards the city gates. But before entering, the ghoul dragged their horse over to an inconspicuous corner. “Umm.... we should go in by foot.”
“Why?” xia said clueless.
“Master xia, did you forget you both are dressed as beggars?”
“Ohhhhh, but what should we do about this horse?”
“I will drive it in. I’m dressed for my part,” the ghoul proudly said, showing off his clean clothes.
Xia nodded swiftly got down. Long grumbled loudly and reluctantly jumped down. He handed the reins over to the ghoul and pouted even more. “I even lost my horse to him.”
“don’t be so childish,” Xia pinched him softly. “Rescuing Felia and Raijin should be our topmost priority,”
Xia rushed to the nearby tree and broke off a branch and removed all the leaves off. He cleaned it and used it as a leaning stick. After which he scratched his head so much that it turned into a bird’s nest.
Watching him, Long tussled his hair as well reluctantly. “Xia, I need compensation for this..... two nights..no four nights straight I will eat...”
Xia swiftly closed his blabbering mouth. His face red from embarrassment, he pulled the stupid dragon over to the city gates.
The ghoul was left behind again. “Highness can eat for four night’s straight! Wah, what a string stomach he must have,” the innocent little ghoul mumbled as he flowed minutes after them. He majestically entered the city on his horse.
Xia and Long entered after paying an entry fee of two coppers and slowly walked in. The city was unusually cheerful, with a lot of people roaming here and there on the streets. A few banners hung on the rooftops, praising the powers of the golden tribe. Xia leaned close to his lover and whispered, “something is off about this town...do you smell any Rakshasas?”
“Not as of now....but ii can clearly smell Raijin’s blood. Even the streets are doused in blood.” he said, lifting his foot. The ground under them was stained brown from old blood.
As they were walking by, the Xia mistakenly shouldered a person. The man disgustingly held his nose and scolded him profusely.
All the while Long clenched his fists and endured. After the man left, he pulled Xia closer and whispered, “Are you okay?”
“Hmm I am, that man was from the golden tribe...I just put a tracking spell on him,” Xia said with a cheerful smirk.
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